CNN reports:

Hat Tip to TechCrunch.

Hat tip: Primary Source

The reason? Apparently the campaign is racking in enough cash to keep the former senator and “Law and Order” star a viable candidate without risking the white-hot scrutiny that comes with an official declaration.

As Here & Now reminds us, months before his death, RFK visited Appalachian coal-country, spotlighting the grinding-poverty of citizens overlooked in the “War on Poverty.”

Edwards kicked off his own “Poverty Tour” Sunday night in New Orleans, where he meet with residents of the Lower 9th Ward. And as the video produced by the campaign clearly shows, like much of the rest of the city, the Lower 9th still clearly bears the scars of Katrina:

While Kennedy wasn’t immune to charges of grandstanding during his Appalachia visit, Edwards, who actually knows what it is like to be poor, lives in an arguably more cynical political ecosystem then that of 1968 — one of 24/7 news and legions of politicized bloggers. The steady drip of stories about $400 haircuts, the 28,000-square-foot manse and the cellulite-reducing flat-tops
has done little to bolster his prospects: he remains frozen in third place behind Hillary Clinton and Barak Obama.

Rick Klein says this tour is a critical chance for Edwards to shift campaign narrative focused back onto his message. Morover, Klein suggest this is Edwards’ last real chance to generate momentum:

The tour that wraps up tomorrow is as much about reviving Edwards as it is about the plight of the nation’s impoverished: If Edwards does not change his campaign’s narrative — and he remains close to becoming a permanent national punch line for his tone-deaf displays of wealth — it’s hard to make an argument that Edwards will be positioned to break through in this field.

The Arizona senator has experienced a steady erosion in the polls since January this year, and as Jonathan Martin and Mike Allen note, his bid for the GOP nod this go-round is absent the exuberance that characterized the heady days of 2000, when the Straight Talk Express rolled into the Granite State and the outspoken maverick charmed the media and enough voters to propel him past a certian Texas governor.

Now the wheels seem to be coming off the Straight Talk Express.

The BBC’s Matt Frei attributes the erstwhile front-runner’s flagging fortunes to his loyalty to the Bush administration — especially on Iraq and immigration. The former remains unpopular with a large chunk of independent voters, a group key to the 2000 New Hampshire victory. And McCain’s vote for the contentious immigration reform bill is not winning him many friends among rank and file conservatives.

But as Martin and Allen further point out, there are also factors beyond the merely political that help explain the implosion of the campaign:

“McCain was in trouble even within the walls of his campaign headquarters, where personal rivalries, poor planning and excessive spending gave him little chance to defeat his external demons.”

McCain’s predicament has invited comparisons to John Kerry when the Democratic presidential contender fired his campaign manager and others in response to a surging Howard Dean. Kerry was then able to retool his sputtering campaign and went on to best the former Vermont governor in both New Hampshire and Iowa.

Unlike Kerry, the Republican candidate is near broke, but as columnist Robert Novak observes, the theoretical possibility of a similar reversal of political fortunes gives a sliver of hope to die-hard McCainites. Moreover, Novak says Rick Davis, who helmed McCain’s 2000 effort, is just such the man to run a leaner and potentially more effective campaign:

“McCain’s slimmed-down campaign will concentrate on early contests in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. Davis is far more adept than Weaver at singing McCain’s praises. McCain supporters hope his eloquent support for the Iraq intervention will earn him backing from the Republican base.”